---
schema_version: "1"
id: c0cd231ee8c2c9f3e02e537b41b9870207ab8360c15b66eb0bddd396ccb0de7b
title: CRM Connections in a Sandbox
collection: admin
version: current
locale: en-us
portal_url: https://docs.salesforce.com/admin/current/en-us/data/264-0-0/c360_a_crm_connections_in_a_sandbox.md
canonical_url: https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=data.c360_a_crm_connections_in_a_sandbox.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5
source_site: help.salesforce.com
content_type: documentation
content_hash: a62dd0caf31c798b1f7d7403aff128bd78d6e9e05b9942db2623a31bf5927a0f
description: Connect your Salesforce org to a sandbox to ensure the safety and integrity of your production environment. When you set up CRM connections from your Salesforce org to a sandbox org, the connections are copied from the production org to the sandbox org.
products:
  - Data 360
release: "264"
---
# CRM Connections in a Sandbox

Connect your Salesforce org to a sandbox to ensure the safety and integrity of your production environment. When you set up CRM connections from your Salesforce org to a sandbox org, the connections are copied from the production org to the sandbox org.

**Sandbox Connection Activation**

After you create connections to a sandbox, view all CRM connections copied from production on the CRM connection page. The connections are **Inactive**, requiring manual activation. One of these connections has the Production Org Id attached to it: this is your Home Org Connection. When you activate this connection, the Org ID shown changes from the Production Org ID to the current Sandbox Org Id.

To activate the connection, click the dropdown arrow next to the connection and click **Activate**. The connection status updates to **Active**, and the org ID reflects the sandbox org ID. Activating the copied Home Org connection in the sandbox creates a connection to the sandbox itself as the data source.

**External Data Source Selection**

When you connect your Salesforce org to an external data source org, you’re prompted to select the type of external data source to connect to. To connect to an external production org, click **Connect to a Salesforce Org**. To connect to an external sandbox org, click **Connect to a Sandbox Org**.

**Alias**

For connections that are copied over without an [alias](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=data.c360_a_crm_alias.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5 "As of July ‘24, an alias is required when setting up a Salesforce CRM connection. Existing connections aren't assigned an alias. The names of the data stream and data lake object are derived from the alias."), the org ID of the data source from the production org is used as the alias when you activate the connection. After you activate the connection, the alias is read-only and you can’t modify it.

**More Connections**

Create new connections to the production org from where the sandbox was cloned, or to a different production or sandbox org as an external data source org. You can also activate copied external CRM connections to the same or different production org or sandbox orgs as the data source.

For example, you can select to activate the connection to either the same (1) data source org as in the production org or a different (2) one.

![Alias for CRM connection.](https://sf-zdocs-cdn-prod.zoominsoftware.com/tdta-data-data_cloud-264-0-0-production-enus/f3569962-3c9b-4f83-9d0c-b6a574e785da/data_cloud/images/c360_a_crm_alias.png)